Thom and Dar's Sabbatical Journal

Hello World! There's a tiny little hand somewhere inside that sleeve. Lyddy with Dar. We'd forgotten how small newborns are. First Family Portrait with Lyddy. It's the circle of life on our little planet. We lost some of our family during the past year, but reinforcements (replacements?) weren't far behind. Welcome Home Lydia.

This week, the last two big Sabbatical II puzzle pieces fell into place. Who says clean living, wholesome foods, and a good attitude don't pay off? Actually, most of May has been a good month for us. On Wednesday we officially became members of Timber Valley Escapee Co-op Park and now have our permanent lot, which will be our west coast home base and is where the bus-house will be based for the foreseeable future. We've been making an effort to get engaged with this small friendly community and are finding it very much to our liking. Our plan is to continue traveling and exploring about half the time and be in residence either here or back in Wisconsin the rest of the time. If that pattern continues to be agreeable, and if we like traveling and exploring in the small truck camper, we will probably replace the motorhome with a non-motorized trailer or fifth-wheel at some point. It just ain't right for a motorhome to sit. Trailers are for sitting. Motorhomes are for trave

We've made some real progress this week. Things are falling into place like puzzle pieces... with a satisfying click. First, we sold our Northstar Arrow camper to a couple very nice people from Utah. We really hit it off with these two when they showed up early Sunday morning to check the camper out. It was one of those perfect fits, in a number of ways. The size and feature-set of this camper was what they were looking for, and their truck was set up perfectly for it. Once loaded, the camper looked right and reportedly handled like they, truck and camper, were made for each other. And we were happy it was going to new owners who clearly are going to take care of it. First puzzle piece... click. New owners for the Northstar... on their way back to Utah. Then on Thursday we drove a couple hours south to Medford to meet the installer of our new Four Wheel Camper. Because this camper is mounted somewhat differently than the Northstar (and most larger truck campers), there w

Life marches on here at Timber Valley in Sutherlin OR. This past weeks weather could be described as pretty much "normal Oregon"... a little of just about everything -- rain, drizzle, sun, fog, warm air, cool air... and all of it almost daily. If careful attention is paid to the sky, a cabin-fevered RVer might find a sun hole large enough to get out a bag-chair and soak up a few minutes of sunshine while soaking up half a bottle of IPA... but, then again, the sun hole probably won't last long enough for even that. Ah, Oregon. A semi-rare sunny Spring day in Oregon In any event, I'm not going to bitch. Once firmly entrenched in the PNW lifestyle a person is acutely aware of the correlation between precipitation and the lush green environment. Rain is a necessary ingredient for there to be flowing streams and vibrant plant growth. We'll take all we can get. And besides, isn't this far better than the minus 30 degree wind chills we experienced during our

Miss Crater Lake 2014 Dar drove up to Camas last weekend (the 25th to the 29th of April) to spend some time with Andrea, Gage, and the kids. The main objective was to hit a local home and garden show with Andrea for some home-improvement and landscaping ideas. The secondary objective was to make some of the landscaping ideas reality. That's right... getting down in the dirt... digging... and hoeing... and planting. By the time she dragged herself back home to Sutherlin, she was tired and sore, and it was Tuesday. I wasn't invited. Or, shall we say, I chose not to go? Either way, being apart for a few days can make you appreciate having your partner around. For the 4 or 5 days she was gone, I carried on pretty much as I would have if she was here. I even went out for some light exploring one day. But it just wasn't the same. Something was missing. Even though we're like oil and water, fight like cats and dogs [wink] all the time, being alone for days on end is just